British Orienteering Championships
1st-2nd May at Brown Clee Hill, Shropshire
Chris Branford writes:
This weekend we had the British Championships at Brown Clee in Shropshire.
Saturday was the British Individual Championships and top ten places for WIM were
Sue Hands 5th W65
Richard Brightman 10th M75
Chris Branford 10th M70.
In addition we had two top ten places on short courses -
Hilary Pickering 4th W60S
Deb Mays 5th W55S.
Sunday 2nd May was the British Relays and we had three teams.
The outstanding result was the M/W70 team of Gillian Cross, Martin Cross and John Warren who came 3rd.
In Mens Short the team of Brian Johnson, Simon Branford and Chris Branford were 19th.
In Ad Hoc the team of Philip Cooper, Lynn Branford and Becca Ellis were 26th.
Well done everybody.
What a difference a day makes! Personal 'Highs' and 'Lows' at BOC 2016
Brown Clee Hill in Shropshire was the venue for the 2016 British Championships, an upland area, part parkland, part forest but most memorably high open very rough moorland with deep, steep valleys rising to over 540m, which was going to be a real challenge to those of us who are more used to the gentle slopes of the New Forest.
For me, the weekend could hardly be described as typical! Day 1 the Individual event launched us into steeply sloping coniferous woodland and after control 1 I was contouring across the slope towards control 2 when I fell badly and cut my hand. As it bled freely and was covered with black mud so had no option but to retire, go back through the Start to the First Aid tent. Fortunately they did a very good job and having come this far I didn't want to miss the technical challenge of the open moorland so after a word with the Controller I resumed my course, needless to say non competitively, with a split time from controls 1 to 2 of about 45mins!
I 'enjoyed' the first half of the course with some astonishingly difficult technical challenges on the semi-open trackless moor where the only way to navigate is to take a bearing onto a feature (a tree, bump,or anything distinctive) and then get to that to feature, stop, and repeat the exercise until you get to your objective. The added problem was that the ground is so rough and marshy that it is difficult to hold a straight line, and once you’ve lost ‘it’ you are likely to move into headless chicken mode except that you are staggering in circles not running!! Because I was not ‘competitive I was able to stop on the windblown summit of Brown Clee Hill and appreciate the stunning view that extended from Snowdon and Plynlimon to the west to Cannock Chase to the east. Choosing my own route back to the finish, I saw a steady stream of stressed competitors crossing my footpath route on the latter part of their courses, and I was surprised that I didn't feel more fed up as I slipped more or less incognito back through download. A look at the results shows that some people were out for some spectacularly long times.
Individual Day: Course 18
Mapping data licenced from the Ordnance Survey with the permission of the Controller of HMSO. Crown Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Licence Number 100015287.
Sunday and the Relays was a completely different story. An early arrival, I had the company of Gillian and Martin Cross on the 1k/120m walk to assembly and as I was running with them as 3rd leg in the M/W70+ Relay class I had plenty of time to spare. I had lost my hat in the accident on the previous day so decided to try using 'map memory' to search for it. What a contrast to be in a peaceful forest with only numerous 'elephant' tracks to show where all the action had been the day before. Amazingly my memory didn't fail me and I located the 'accident site' and my hat and came back to assembly feeling that today was going to be a much better day, but not quite yet! I had forgotten to bring my glasses up from the car! There followed a ‘panic’ return trip to the car park with a serious warm up climbing back up the Ikm/120m route to assembly.
The Relay change-over was, this year level and with excellent visibility of incoming runners and Gillian arrived very much on schedule. The terrain was much less severe than the previous day but still testing by New Forest standards. Some very steep slopes, deciduous woods and high open moorland with huge vistas over towards the Welsh Mountains, but without the tussocks. A gently downhill 'run-in' encouraged a sprint to the finish line, but the cheers that I heard were not for me but for the Elite Mens team who were rapidly bearing down on me in the run-in! I just made the finish punch before they arrived!
Recovering back at the WIM group base everyone seemed to be very pleased about our team run and I was taken aback to be told that Gillian, Martin and I were likely to be on the podium. I can safely say that I was utterly amazed! In 40 years of Orienteering I have never been on a podium! Yes, I have helped put up podiums in the past, but never been a medal winner, but so it turned our that we were Bronze medallists in the BOC 2016 M/W70+ and we joined the other winners on a very crowded, but convivial podium to receive our medals. Is this stardom? I think not!
Two Days of utter contrast, Saturday disaster, Sunday unbelievable success. I've had some highs and lows over the 40years that I have been Orienteering but never a contrast like this! So a memorable weekend, good company, good courses and some superbly challenging terrain. This is what Orienteering is all about.
John Warren
Congratulations to Martin, Gillian, and John, third in the M/W70 class at the British Relays
